Monday, January 17, 2011

Good Mini-UBOC start ... sorta

Played my first event of the Ultimate Bet Online Championships 6 on Sunday -- the Mini-UBOC Event 2, Sniper No Limit Holdem Deep Stack. The event offered $5 bounty for each foe you eliminated, and cost $30+$3 to enter.

On the downside, I didn't finish in the money. Wound up 288th of 1,609 entrants, and top 180 finishers got paid. Very disappointing; more on that in a minute. On the upside, I did get two bounties, so earned $10 back.

The hand of the tournament for me showed that Sham Luck doesn't always go bad. It went like this:

Stage #525811249 Tourney ID 5885386 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit 300 - 2011-01-16 18:02:57 (ET)
Table: 24 (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 1 - GROOVE58 (9,498 in chips)
Seat 2 - JSLAB24 (5,455 in chips)
Seat 3 - SHANGO_BANGO (5,685 in chips)
Seat 4 - SHAMANALIX21 (6,739 in chips)
Seat 5 - SOUPERUSER (10,827 in chips)
Seat 6 - DRDOOM2U (22,871 in chips)
Seat 7 - JMOODLEY (3,865 in chips)
Seat 8 - MOOK2307 (5,175 in chips)
Seat 9 - OAKTREE12 (10,900 in chips)
GROOVE58 - Ante 25
JSLAB24 - Ante 25
SHANGO_BANGO - Ante 25
SHAMANALIX21 - Ante 25
SOUPERUSER - Ante 25
DRDOOM2U - Ante 25
JMOODLEY - Ante 25
MOOK2307 - Ante 25
OAKTREE12 - Ante 25
SOUPERUSER - Posts small blind 150
DRDOOM2U - Posts big blind 300
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to SHAMANALIX21 [7d 7h]
JMOODLEY - Raises 900 to 900
MOOK2307 - Folds
OAKTREE12 - Folds
GROOVE58 - Folds
JSLAB24 - Folds
SHANGO_BANGO - Folds
SHAMANALIX21 - Raises 6,600 to 6,600
SOUPERUSER - Folds
DRDOOM2U - Folds
JMOODLEY - All-In 2,940
SHAMANALIX21 - returned (2,760) : not called
*** FLOP *** [9s 4s 7s]
*** TURN *** [9s 4s 7s] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [9s 4s 7s 6c] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SHAMANALIX21 - Shows [7d 7h] (Full house, sevens full of fours)
JMOODLEY - Shows [Ac As] (Two Pair, aces and fours)
SHAMANALIX21 Collects 8,355 from main pot
SHAMANALIX21 Collects Bounty Prize of $5
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot(8,355)
Board [9s 4s 7s 6c 4h]
Seat 1: GROOVE58 Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 2: JSLAB24 Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 3: SHANGO_BANGO Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 4: SHAMANALIX21 (dealer) won Total (8,355) HI:(8,355) with Full house, sevens full of fours [7d 7h - B:7s,P:7h,P:7d,B:4s,B:4h] BOUNTY awarded: ($5)
Seat 5: SOUPERUSER (small blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 6: DRDOOM2U (big blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 7: JMOODLEY HI:lost with Two Pair, aces and fours [Ac As - P:As,P:Ac,B:4s,B:4h,B:9s]
Seat 8: MOOK2307 Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 9: OAKTREE12 Folded on the POCKET CARDS

Wow. Cracked me some aces with my flopped set. Didn't expect to run into such a strong hand; been doing that a lot lately it seems, especially ambushed by AA or KK. That's the way it goes, though, so I'll take wins any way I can get 'em.

Really, though, I was on my best game most of this tournament, which made coming up short of the payouts extra disappointing. One thing about bounty (sniper) tournaments is that the temptation for some extra money makes folks sometimes do things they normally would not do. Me too. I got my first bounty very early in the tournament when I trapped an AK with my AA, getting them all-in after a preflop four-raise bidding war. And my AA actually held up! Then they next three times I tried to eliminate shorter stacks I missed the bounty and doubled them up -- there's the normal Sham Luck.

I was up to 94th place of 1,220 players competing starting the Level 5 before the first break. My missed bounty attempts plunged me to 1166th/1205 players (late entries were/are accepted for 2 hours in this and all UBOC events). But I didn't give up, steadily coming back and reaching 513th/906 at the second break. My above-detailled luckout cracking the aces came early in Level 10. But I lost some of my new chips shortly thereafter going for another bounty, when my nut flush didn't arrive on the turn or river for a 6,500-chip pot. Such a rollercoaster ride!

And it continued!!

I pushed an 88 and got called by the table chip leader, who had 66. My hand held, I scooped a 13.5K pot and climbed to 242nd/598 left. By the third break I was 90th/396, and starting to let tiny thoughts about the first-place prize -- only $8,500 or so -- cross my mind. But such thoughts can be very dangerous, and it wasn't to be. I had my late-position AK run into AA and fail with a 27K pot on the line, dropping me to about 9,000 chips. Can you say greeedy, unlucky and dumb? Shortly thereafter, the rest of my chips went in for my 33, the table's big stack called with 88 and I was toast.

On the whole, well-played. On the outcome, very disappointing, Leaves me a few things to do serious work on in my game. But things are coming along.

I've got my eyes on a few more Mini-UBOCs. Decided to skip Mini 5 (NLHE) tonight and maybe aim for Mini 7 (NLHE) on Wednesday. Then Mini 12 is another NLHE Sniper (bounty) game Friday. The Minis run through Jan. 30; hopefully there'll be better, more complete play down the line from the Shamster -- and some good paydays.

Meanwhile, good luck all!

No comments: